


Breaking the Peace

by desperationandgin



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-03
Packaged: 2017-12-22 06:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/909932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desperationandgin/pseuds/desperationandgin





	Breaking the Peace

There’ve been emergencies before. Times James rushed out of the house so fast that she didn’t have a chance to ask what was wrong. But he never went off the grid. He was never gone an entire morning without checking back in with someone. So Juliet knows, she  _knows_  that something isn’t right. Even as she’s down in security stealing Miles’ coffee and trying to pretend things are fine when James shows back up, she knows she isn’t going to like whatever he has to tell her.  
  
So when she gets to their house and he says ‘they’re back’, she plays dumb for the second it takes her stomach to drop, feeling a mask slide into place that she hasn’t worn in years. When he says ‘Jack, Hurley. Kate’, her stomach comes back up to her throat and she looks away, taking a step back from him as her brain tries to process what he’s saying. If they’d been in the present time, fine, that’s one thing and there’s no way they could have done this forever, but it’s 1977 and she’s supposed to be done. Done with feeling like her life is going to fall apart any second, done with wondering if he really loves her, or if she’s just holding Kate’s place.   
  
Even when he’s trying to reassure her that he’s going to keep them from ruining everything, she knows he can’t. Knows that where Jack and Kate are concerned at least, they can’t ever have just normal. James leaves again after she promises to get the sub manifest and to assign work station assignments. It’s quiet in the house to the point where she can hear the clock in the kitchen ticking, and somewhere in the back of her mind she thinks it’s counting down to something. She tries to tell herself she’s being ridiculous, that all of this is going to be okay because James is in control. He loves her; there’s no reason he’d be with her if not. There’s been so much damage in the years of her life without James that three can’t erase all of it. They’ve only been together for two, and she has no idea if that’s long enough for him to have forgotten how upset he was over losing Kate.  
  
She drags herself up, makes herself go forward with whatever the hell it is she has to do. Creates assignments for everyone – Jack as a janitor because it’s the worst she can do. Maybe it’s childish because his aptitude test would have him right in the clinic. But he doesn’t get to come here and play hero by patching people up. Not anymore. She puts Hurley in the kitchen, and then she stares at Kate’s name after she writes it. What the hell is she going to do with Kate? Juliet looks out of the window, eyes seeing people walking outside but not really focusing until she lands on a dark blue jumpsuit.  
  
 _Motor Pool_. She writes it in pen before she can change her mind. Wonders what Kate’s face will look like when she finds out Sawyer isn’t Sawyer anymore. Wonders how long it’ll take for James to realize soft spoken and plain isn’t what he’d ever really settle for in the real world. Juliet watches as a van drives through, sees Hurley’s mop of curly hair and suddenly it’s real, they’re back, and she has to be okay with it.


End file.
